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CNN has refused to run an ad made by President Donald Trump’s team because of its labeling of several prominent news anchors as “fake news.”

The ad was made to celebrate Trump’s first 100 days in office, including a list of things he has accomplished since his inauguration. The narrator in the ad then says, “You wouldn’t know it from watching the news.” It then features images of CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow, and others along with the graphic reading “fake news.”

“CNN requested that the advertiser remove the false graphic that the mainstream media is ‘fake news,’” CNN said in a statement. “The mainstream media is not fake news, and therefore the ad is false and per policy will be accepted only if that graphic is deleted.”

Michael Glassner, the executive director of Donald J. Trump for President Inc. called CNN’s refusal to air the ad “shameful.”

British mountaineer Tim Mosedale was descending Mount Everest’s treacherous Khumbu Icefall after a recent acclimatization run when he came across a large group of inexperienced climbers struggling with their gear. One even had his crampons on the wrong feet.

Such large groups, along with climbers trying to work without supplemental oxygen, add up to a potential “toxic mix” on the world’s highest peak this year, wrote Mosedale, a veteran who has ascended Everest five times, in a Facebook post April 27.

Nepal is bracing for a busy and potentially dangerous season on Mount Everest after the government issued a record number of permits to foreign climbers this year — 371, the most since 1953. Add to that the number of Nepali sherpa mountain guides and the number soars to 800.

The Balch Springs, Texas, police officer who shot and killed Jacob Edwards, a 15-year-old black high school freshman, has been fired after an internal affairs investigation concluded he violated multiple department policies, officials announced Tuesday night.

Edwards’s family members said in a statement they were grateful the officer, Roy Oliver, had been fired but said there “remains a long road ahead.” They said they wanted Oliver to be charged with murder and other officers at the scene disciplined as well.

Meanwhile, in Louisiana, the Justice Department has decided not to bring charges against the officers involved in the death of Alton Sterling, whose videotaped shooting by police in Baton Rouge last summer prompted unrest across the city, and is planning to reveal in the next 24 hours that it has closed the probe, according to four people familiar with the matter.

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad testifies before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing on his nomination to be U.S. ambassador to China on May 2. [Reuters]

President Donald Trump’s choice to be ambassador to China pledged Tuesday to leverage a personal relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping to convince China that it is risking its own security if it fails to prevent a nuclear crisis with North Korea.

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) is expected to win confirmation and could be on the job in Beijing by the end of the month. “It is probably the most pressing issue that we have right now,” Branstad said of the effort to talk North Korea out of nuclear weapons and missile capabilities that threaten the United States and its allies.

In addition to two hearings this week, David Dao’s ordeal aboard United Airlines has prompted a flurry of legislation, including a bill that would ask the secretary of transportation to review the practice of overbooking and whether there should be limits on the number of seats an airline can sell on a flight.

Local headlines

Huguenot Head and the nearby ocean are seen clearly from the Ladder Trail of Dorr Mountain in Acadia National Park. [Aislinn Sarnacki | BDN]

“Acadia National Park’s extraordinary beauty and recreational opportunities attracted a record number of visitors in 2016, making it the eighth most-visited national park in the country,” Superintendent Kevin Schneider said in a Thursday news release.

The largest chunk of visitor spending, about 33 percent, went toward hotel accommodations, while 18 percent went to restaurants, according to the report. The rest was divided up among recreation, retail, transportation, gas and groceries.

On Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” Vice President Mike Pence described how Republicans “are borrowing an idea from the state of Maine that has seen a significant drop in premiums for people on their health insurance.”

That idea is called a “high-risk pool.” While the term might make you think of an ill-advised swim in an old gravel pit, here’s what this concept actually involves and how it worked in Maine.

Watch the first trailer for Stephen King’s ‘The Dark Tower’

Events and living

The public is invited observe the breeding displays of the American Woodcock at Georges River Land Trust’s Trolley Marsh Preserve in Warren on Wednesday, May 10 from 7-8:30 p.m.. Woodcock, also called Timberdoodle, display acrobatic flight and a singing call as part of their yearly breeding ritual.

An unknown party has set up a phone line that may be intended to deceptively reach veterans trying to contact the Veterans Choice Program, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. According to the VA, veterans should realize they have reached the wrong number when the phone line offers a $100 rebate if the caller provides a credit card number and when the phone line does not state the caller has reached the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the VCP phone line. (If asked, however, be aware that the person on the end of the line incorrectly confirms callers have reached the VCP.)

After remaining largely silent on the past weekend’s violence in Virginia, Gov. Paul LePage erupted Thursday on the radio. Maine’s Republican governor echoed President Donald Trump’s reaction to the Charlottesville conflict, assigning equal blame to white supremacists and counter-protesters who showed up to oppose a rally against removing a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. […]